While vacationers may want to "get away from it all," RV full-timers want to stay in touch with the world every day. We want news, weather, sports, entertainment and email. Skype video, if possible, is always welcome.
A satellite dish and a cellphone with a Wi-Fi hotspot are the best ways to achieve this, but they are costly in the long run. Plus, cellular plans typically max out at 5 GB of data, and are not useful for streaming video.
The good news is that over-the-air (OTA) television is still free, and free Wi-Fi signals can be found all over. The trick is to maximize the reception quality.
Television setup
There are three things you can do to improve your TV signal:
- Select the right campsite
- Tune to the desired channel
- Upgrade your antenna
Satellite users know to stay away from trees and have open skies to the south. Antenna TV users have to be selective, too. Before you select a site, know where possible signals are coming from. Park at the highest level of the camp, avoiding hollows, hillsides and large trees. Having a tree trunk directly between your antenna and the signal source will kill it dead.
Before you get to your next park, check out TV Fool, Enter the address of the camp into the blanks. A chart will come up (see below) showing available channels, their distance from the camp, and their compass heading from the park to the station transmitter.
Of course, you'll need to know of any hills or mountains between you and the source. In medium to large cities, there will be several stations in the same direction. If between two cities, there may be more stations in another direction. You can decide which ones to try first.
Select your campsite. Use a compass to ensure a clear path to the source you want. Tune your antenna to the source using the antenna controls in your RV.
The typical RV antenna is a Winegard batwing, They were made primarily for analog signals, with some HD capability. Some folks add on an HD upgrade wing or move up to a duckbill-shaped antenna made for HD.
The batwing will have a nose. Point the nose (or duckbill) toward the signal.
Your HD TV should have a setup menu that will have the TV find available channels. Run it to see what you get. Typically, it will find more signals than you can use because it senses low-power signals that your TV cannot compose into a program.
Once this has run and found channels, check some with the signal meter section of your setup. You need at least 60 percent signal strength to enjoy a show. At this point you may be able to tweak your antenna direction to improve the signal, but signal depends on a number of factors, so there is a limit to improvement.
Wi-Fi setup
Smartphones with hotspot or tethering capabilities can be found easily. However, the data costs are high, and bandwidth is slow and will not support streaming video, Skype or free internet phone.
Wi-Fi at campgrounds is a mixed bag. Some camps have excellent Wi-Fi, either free or at a moderate cost. These are the minority. Some have decent Wi-Fi, but only in the main lodge. The majority have poor Wi-Fi, or none at all. In the last few years, high-speed satellite Internet has become a reasonable proposition all over North America, and camps without it or other high-speed Internet choices are just not listening to their customers.
Until the quality of Wi-Fi improves, we need to do it ourselves. The best solution for better reception is a Wi-Fi antenna or booster. These devices look like an HD antenna with a flat face. Most have a 25-foot USB cable so they can be placed on a table indoors, or mounted on an outdoor mast.
These antennas are available on Amazon.com or at many electronics retailers for about $40. They have a range of up to 200 feet, line of sight only. Locate the nearest antenna or other source, and you will likely have decent Wi-Fi. Of course, at busy times, net congestion will slow your connection.
Some camps provide TengoInternet, an outdoor Wi-Fi service. In the past, this was not a good option as reception was spotty at best. Then I read the TengoInternet FAQs. They clearly recommend an external antenna, pointing out that most PCs are set up for indoor Wi-Fi reception. But few campgrounds will tell you this.
Put your booster outside your RV on a short mast or clipped onto your unit, point it at the signal antenna, and connect to your PC. The booster brings in TengoInternet easily.
When you are on the road, there are thousands of free Wi-Fi hot spots: burger joints, coffee shops, pizzerias, libraries and hotels. These places do not turn off their equipment at night, so connections from 100-200 feet are available. Most do not require a password, but for those that do, try the location's 10-digit phone number.
Final note: When using free Wi-Fi, having effective antivirus software is a must.
